Travel back in time with these amazing historical GIFs

The U.S. National Archives, the official record-keeping agency for all of America, announced something pretty awesome on Friday: it has uploaded a bunch of old historical videos, photos, animations, and other media as free GIFs on the popular search engine Giphy. You can get these free historical GIFs here and use them however you want!

Each little animated gem of history includes a link to its page in the National Archives online database, for more information.

The Natty Archives (as we like to say) has also added the ability to search for its GIFs and share them directly on Twitter: click the GIF button when composing a tweet and search "ArchivesGIF." A handy option for when you absolutely must share your love of retro science nostalgia. Take your love of the graphics interface format to another level at the agency's "Advanced GIF-Making Techniques" webinar class coming up next week on Wednesday, September 28, 2016, from 3 pm-4 pm ET, hosted by the Digital Public Library of America. The classes promises to show you how to make your own GIFs from archive images.

A gif taken from The John Glenn Story, a biography on the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962. The archives include the full film, which spans Glenn's childhood in New Concord, Ohio, his combat pilot service, and highlights from piloting Friendship 7.

US National Archives

Sequioa Dancing

Harpers Ferry Center created a compilation of over 550 sites for park interpretive centers and exhibits. The series was created in 1970, but some of the material used dates back to 1917. Here, people dance in a circle around a massive tree in Sequioa National Park. So jaunty.

US National Archives

The Plight Of The Avrocar

Footage from a recording of the Avrocar, a Canadian project developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. during the Cold War. The "a saucer-shaped vehicle with new transition control, flight demonstrations displaying its ability to operate from ground cushion to in-flight over unprepared terrain and ditches," the Archives notes. It was deemed a failure and lost funding in 1961, as it could only fly a few feet off the ground and would get extremely hot and loud when it was in action.

US National Archives

Dogs <3 National Parks, Too

A scene from a black and white 35 mm film from 1924 by Ford Motor Company, promoting national parks.

US National Archives

Bookmobile Comin' Thru

An image from the 1961 film The Day The Books Went Blank, which "portrays a mythical day when all printed pages go blank and libraries vanish," as a dystopian warning for society without libraries. The "Vermont book wagon" races through the streets in this clip.

Ed White taking history's first space walk in 1965, used in the 1968 documentary America in Space - The First Decade. From the archives, where the full film is available: "This film provides a 10-year history of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) role in the exploration of space. It describes major accomplishments in aeronautics, atmospheric research, the use of scientific and applications satellites, studies of the moon and planets, and manned space flight."

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Most iconic images of war through history

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Most iconic images of war through history

A visitor walks past 'Robert Capa 'Soldier taking cover at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6th 1944' during the 'Life. I grandi fotografi' (Life. The great photographers) exhibition at the auditorium on April 30, 2013 in Rome. The exhibition showing some 150 pictures taken from 1936 when the US magazine Life magazine premiered will be open from May, 1 to August 4, 2013. AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE, MANDATORY CREDIT OF THE ARTIST, TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo credit should read GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

This 11 September 2001 file photo shows Marcy Borders covered in dust as she takes refuge in an office building after one of the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York. Borders was caught outside on the street as the cloud of smoke and dust enveloped the area. The woman was caught outside on the street as the cloud of smoke and dust enveloped the area. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

DEH AFGHAN, AFGHANISTAN - JUNE 27: Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion 4th Infantry Regiment do morning exercises at a U.S. base at Deh Afghan June 27, 2006 in the Zabul province of southern Afghanistan. The troops are participating in Operation Mountain Thrust against Taliban fighters across southern Afghanistan. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

AFGHANISTAN PAKISTAN BORDER, AFGHANISTAN - OCTOBER 20: An American soldier holds a U.S. Army hand grenade on which a soldier wrote 'One free trip to Allah' while at an observation post in the Paktika province of Afghanistan Oct. 20, 2006 overlooking the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The outpost, only 800 meters from the Pakistan, is frequently attacked by Taliban forces, many of whom cross over from the South Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan, according to American soldiers. Most Taliban believe they are fighting a holy war or 'jihad' against non-Muslims in Afghanistan, and those who die in jihad are promised an eternity in paradise. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, PAKTIKA - OCTOBER 15: US Army soldiers in the 1/501st of the 25th Infantry Division shield their eyes from the powerful rotor wash of a Chinook cargo helicopter as they are picked up from a mission October 15, 2009 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan. Soldiers of the 1/501 scoured the Afghan countryside near the Pakistani border on a two-day mission into a tense part of Paktika province, an that American soldiers had not patroled for over three years. The troops were looking for suspected Taliban weapons stores and hideouts. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

ALEPPO, SYRIA - JUNE 09: An injured Syrian man is carried on a stretcher by emergency staff after a barrel bomb attack dropped by Syrian regime forces on a bakery in Ansari neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria on June 09, 2015. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)